Who Are the “Sons Of God”

in Genesis 6?

Genesis 6 is a cryptic passage just before the account of the worldwide Flood.  The event of Genesis 6:2-5 was one of the major factors leading to the wickedness before the Flood.  Moses writes that the “sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took then wives of all which they chose” (Gen. 6:2).  Their offspring became a race called the Nephilim, who became the heroes of ancient lore.

There are actually three theories that have been proposed as to the identity of the “sons of God.”  The least likely theory is that the “sons of God” were dynastic rulers.  The appeal of this position is that it smooths away the difficulty of the passage rather easily.  The “daughters of men” are believed to be commoners.  The reason for God’s judgment was the sin of polygamy.  The Aramaic targums favor this view.

Evidences given that great men—rulers and kings— took these commoners in polygamous relationships is that magistrates and rulers are often referred to as gods (Ex. 21:6; 22:8, 9, 28; Ps. 82:1, 6).  Another evidence is that kings are sometimes called the sons of deities.  The problem with this view is that kingship is not expressed in this way.  Additionally, Scripture never considers kings to be sons of deity.  The only possible exception to this would be Psalm 2:6, 7 (“Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.  I will declare the decree:  the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”), but even this passage poses a problem for adherents of this view since the passage is a reference to Jesus Christ.  A final problem is that this theory fails to draw the connection of verse 4.  The “men of renown” are the Nephilim, and not the children of the union.

A second view holds that the “sons of God” were fallen angels who cohabited with humans to produce a hybrid race of “Nephilim” (Gen. 6:4).  The sin then is the marriage between angelic creatures and mortals.  The support for this is said to be the clear reading of the Text and the fact that the phrase “sons of God” is used of angels in such passages as Job 2:1;1 38:7; Ps. 29:1; 89:7).  New Testament passages such as 1 Peter 3:18-22 and Jude 6, 7 are also cited as evidence since they seem to indicate that fallen angels left their natural habitat when marrying mortals.  This act then is believed to have played a large part in the wickedness of Noah’s day.  The Book of Enoch upholds this belief:

The Lord spoke:  “Have no fear, Enoch….Go speak to the Watchers of Heaven [angels], who have sent you to intercede for them.  Tell them, You should intercede for men, and not men for you.  Why did you leave lofty, holy Heaven to sleep with women, to defile yourselves with the daughters of men and take them as your wives, and like the children of the earth to beget sons, in your case giants.

   And now the giants, offspring of spirit and flesh, will be called spirits on the earth, and earth shall be their dwelling.  Their bodies emitted evil spirits because they were born from human women and the holy Watchers.  The giants afflict, oppress, destroy, attack over the earth (Book of Enoch, XV).2

The KJV translates the Hebrew as “giants” rather than “fallen ones,” as it should be rendered.  Nevertheless, the mention of “giants” is argued to support the view of a superhuman race from angels and mortals marrying since ungodly men and godly women marry all the time but do not produce giants.  Additional support is that Christ said angels do not marry in heaven, but He did not say that they cannot marry (Mt. 22:30).

The problem with this view is that it lends itself to a more mythological tone than a biblical interpretation.  Furthermore, angels were not mentioned previously in the context and the fact that angels perpetrated this sin does not explain why man is punished by the Flood.

Welsh preacher, I.D.E. Thomas, believes that the current UFO activity is best explained by comparing the account of Genesis 6 with Jesus statement that “as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Mt. 24:37).  Thomas believes that UFOs are demons (“fallen angels”) and that just as they invaded the human race in Noah’s day they may try to do this again in the future prior to Christ’s coming.3  However, Jesus’ statement has no reference to the events of Genesis 6 happening again.  He is simply stating that in the days of Noah the people were unconcerned about the coming judgment of the Flood and so it will be in the future when He returns to the earth in judgment (cf. Mt. 24:38, 39).

A major factor against both of the previous views is the context.  Chapter 4 lists the ungodly line of Cain and chapter 5 traces the godly line of Seth.  In chapter 6, there is a marriage of the ungodly and godly lines, which would be the specific sin.  Therefore, the “sons of God” would be the godly line of Seth and the “daughters of men” would be the line of Cain.  The context is the strongest argument for this interpretation since the concept of a godly line is clearly established.  Furthermore, the Hebrew (“and it came to pass, when men began to multiply”) would indicate continuity in thought between chapters 5 and 6.  This sin of God’s people intermarrying with the ungodly races is a common theme throughout the history of the Old Testament.

Admittedly, there are problems with this view since the term “sons of God” never means a godly line anywhere else in Scripture.  There also is no evidence that the lines of Cain and Seth were kept completely separate from intermarriage.  At this time, God has not chosen to work through one line either.  The classification of  “men” in chapter 6 is quite general and would need more evidence to be understood otherwise.  However, the term “giants” should not be understood as a superhuman race.  The word simply means “fallen ones.”  Leupold translates the word as “attackers,” “robbers,” or “bandits.”4  The last two views seem to have the most biblical evidence, albeit both have problems also.  It does seem best though to interpret the “sons of God” as the godly line of Seth because of the previous chapter.  The New Testament references (1 Pet. 3:18-22; Jude 6, 7) do seem to imply uncommon demonic activity, but it would need weightier evidence to propose that the Nephilim are a hybrid race of some sort.  As a side note, reference is made of the Nephilim in Numbers 13:33, but it would seem here that the spies were lying about their being giants in the land (cf. Numb. 13:30, 31).  The Israelites did encounter Goliath the Gath in their early history which would cause further question if the Nephilim were a hybrid race since 2 Samuel 21:15-22 includes a brief chronicle of Israel’s encounter with giants when the Flood apparently destroyed them.

1 The Septuagint reads a[ggeloi tou' qeou' (“angels of God”).

2 Translated by R.H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1913) in Willis Barnstone, ed., The Other Bible (San Francisco:  HarperCollins, 1984), p. 487.

3 I.D.E. Thomas, The Omega Conspiracy (Herndon:  Growth Publishing, 1986), pp. 236-238.

4 H. C. Leupold, Exposition of Genesis, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids:  Baker Book House, 1950), p. 258.